Taking the Shadow of an Obelisk and letting it dissolve into the Sea

Taking the Shadow of an Obelisk and letting it dissolve into the Sea consists in a large format cyanotype on paper and in a video showing the process of realization. The work is the result of the exposure to the sunlight of the photosensitive surface of the paper, placed on the shadow of the obelisk of Villa Opicina (Trieste) the moment when the sun was at the highest point.The video shows in real time the process of chemical impression of the shadow on the paper and the following process of washing and development of the cyanotype in the Adriatic Sea, on the coast of Trieste.In ancient Egypt the obelisk was conceived as a petrified sun ray, a symbol of the deity Ra, God of Sun.The obelisk of Villa Opicina was erected on a promontory near Trieste in 1839, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the occasion of the inauguration of Strada Nuova per Opicina (the new street for Opicina) that connected the city of Trieste with Austria.The Obelisk of Opicina was dedicated to the Austrian Emperor Franz I von Habsburg-Lothringen.